Adventures in the Art of Brewing

Last night, Ira and I met up with Emily and Jason, and kicked our vacation off right, with a trip to the New Holland Brewery. Specialists of "Art in the Fermented form", New Holland is most famous around the Midwest for their Mad Hatter IPA. Of course, we had to had a sampler flight of all their many beers and hard ciders. We drank the shit out of that art! My favorite beers, pictured above were a specialty Cream Ale, and the Black Tulip, the two pictured on the right. On the left, the Poet and a Apricot Wheat. We paired our beer flight with the High Gravity Meat and Cheese Platter from the appetizer menu. So many cheeses, beers, meats...what else is there?



Well, there's pizza of course. We had to try the BBQ chicken pizza, which was not only delicious last night, but this morning as well!



Beside brewing beer, they also make their own spirits. Jason and I sampled the homemade vodka (distilled like a brandy; drinks like a vodka). We had a bit of an adventure when Jason ordered the "Classic Martini" which was described as how you would imagine the recipe to be, gin or vodka, vermouth, and olives. However, when Jason got his drink, it tasted mysteriously like Chardonnay. We thought, hum, perhaps their vodka distills like a brandy and drinks like a brandy... When we asked our waitress about the wine flavors and she replied the Chardonnay flavor is probably from the Chardonnay. We asked what drink we got, and she replied "the Classic". Who puts a splash of Chardonnay in a Martini? We asked for Martinis, extra dry and extra dirty, hold on the Chardonnay. The second round of drinks were great. OK, no more whining about the wine. We left New Holland Brewery well fed and watered.

Today...Michigan Adventure. Water slides!